- Lilas Khanem's arms was savagely burnt when her house was bombed by President Assad's forces five months ago
- Her father took the torturous decision to risk his three children's lives to seek medical treatment for her in Germany
- But the family now find themselves stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos with no food, water or washing facilities
- Migrants are collapsing from exhaustion and clashing with police as tempers fray while waiting for days to register
Bearing the horrific scars of war with remarkable courage, little Lilas Khanem must have hoped Europe would provide the safe haven she so desperately needs.
The two-year-old's arm was savagely burned when her house in Syria was bombed by President Bashir Assad's forces five months ago.
After the blast destroyed their home, her father Rawad, a coffee shop owner, took the torturous decision to risk his three children's lives to seek medical treatment for her in Germany.
But the family of five now find themselves trapped on the Greek island of Lesbos, with thousands of starving migrants in sweltering heat with no food, water or washing facilities in what has been described as a 'hell on earth'.
The island of some 100,000 residents has been transformed by the sudden new population of some 20,000 refugees, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – and the strain is pushing everyone to the limit.
Here, they must register with police and receive an official document, without which they can't buy a ferry ticket to the mainland to continue on land through the Balkans and onto Western Europe
But the registration offices are swamped, slowing everything down. Under the punishing sun in high humidity, hundreds crowd outside the offices for hours, with tempers regularly fraying.
Brawls break out frequently among the hot, exhausted crowds, often met by police swinging batons and shouting: 'Pisso!' – Greek for 'go away.'
Others collapse from exhaustion and some are too scared to go to the toilet for fear of losing their place in the queue.
It was this scene that greeted the Khanems when they landed in a dinghy from Turkey this week after fleeing their home in Al Qunaytirah, in south-western Syria.
They were forced to sleep rough in the port of Mytilini last night after walking 30km from the spot where they boat landed and they are increasingly worried about the damage the heat will have on Lilas' red-raw scars.
As the young family began bedding down on the steps of the customs house, Lilas was whimpering because her miniature surgical vest was unbearably itchy in the late summer heat.
'We came only to heal her – to give her a future', he told MailOnline.
Lilas' red-raw scars have to be protected inside the vest, but the heat of the sun has caused excruciating irritation.
'The sun is so hot on her arm. She needs to have a shower to ease the itching', her mother Rabab explained. 'But here, there are no showers.'
She is clearly shocked by their new circumstances on Lesbos, where tens of thousands of refugees have been camped out in the island's capital for weeks.
A staggering 80,000 migrants landed in August – more than arrived in Italy during the whole of 2015, a record-breaking year. 'We didn't expect this', she said.
With no washing facilities or toilets conditions in the town are deplorable, with one aid worker commenting it was 'worse than Somalia'.
Children crawl in the dirt and play among the debris as their parents look out to sea, waiting for the next ship to come in.
Two newly arrived boys of around 12 asked a volunteer, in perfect English: 'Excuse me where is the WC?' But she just shook her head.
Hundreds of cheap festival tents are crammed into the port, each housing up to six or seven people.
Other groups have put up canvas around the picturesque harbourside and in parks in the town.
Hanula, an Afghan boy of 15, built a homemade shelter using twine and cardboard on the ferry jetty. Some families have only cardboard to sleep on, or nothing at all.
Lilas is one of a number of child victims of the war in Syria on the island.
Six-year-old Assad Alhamad is travelling with a cast on his broken leg after being hit by a bomb in his bed at home in Yarmouk Syria.
His father Hussein said he will take his son to Germany to get treatment – then 'go back to kill Bashir Assad.'
Families who have been waiting for their papers for up to 11 days have been surviving on biscuits and fizzy drinks as their savings evaporate.
Aid agencies and NGOs say it has been almost impossible to distribute food and water in the port because of the overwhelming numbers.
Eva Jordung Nicolson from the Red Cross said it was extremely challenging: 'When volunteers try to deliver something it's chaos because people are so desperate.'
One mother-of-three from Aleppo Thounia Jimo said: 'I'm not eating anything and the children are having only milk.
'I had €500, but we've been here 11 days and spent it all on food and water. When I go to buy the ticket to leave here tomorrow, I have to borrow the money.'
Like the Khanems, she said she is stunned by the appalling living situation she has found herself in.
Her youngest daughter Jean, a 16-month-old with long eyelashes, had been wearing the same nappy for five days.
The infant is suffering from a severe nappy rash, but, heartbreakingly, she has grown so used to the discomfort she doesn't complain.
One man showed us small white bites on his daughter's legs, adding: 'All the children here have these now.'
Zacharea Hidawi, a taekwondo teacher from Aleppo who brought his three children with him, says: 'I did not think Europe would be like this.
'It's the same as Syria. I wish I stayed there. I would prefer to be dead in the war instead of this.'
'I thought here the government would help us with food and water.'
Many of the refugees need medical treatment, NGOs say.
The women aren't eating or drinking water because there is nowhere to go to the toilet, Alessandra Morelli from UNHCR explained.
'We are also seeing a lot of sunburns, dehydration and exhaustion, infections.'
Numerous mothers told MailOnline they were extremely worried about their children as they had had fevers.
Two-year-old Zulfake was drinking condensed milk straight from the can as her father was desperate to keep her going.
Inevitably, the arrival of a population the size of a medium sized town on the island has led to tensions with locals and police with both refugees and locals marching in protest.
One man showed MailOnline the truncheon marks on his arms where he said police beat him as he queued for his registration papers.
Locals are not allowed to give refugees lifts in their cars to town or put them up in hotels as if caught they would be officially classed as traffickers.
Ronny Abti, a 30-year-old from Aleppo said he was ill with tuberculosis and had no more antibiotics but the doctor on Lesbos had refused to help him. 'He treated me like an animal.'
Many in the port watched enviously last night as six thousand of their compatriots sailed on three specially arranged ferries to Athens.
Those on board whistled and waved as the biggest ship sailed off into the sunset but those left in the port were too tired to wave back.
They were able to leave in such numbers after aid workers had worked all night in a former football stadium to register some 18 thousand Syrian refugees, also managing to distribute hot meals.
The Greek army at last agreed to open a former barracks on the island to provide an official camp.
But for many, like Lilas' family, it will not come soon enough.
Her father said 'We just want to get off this island and forget this as soon as possible. There must be something better than this.'
In a sign of some relief, Greek authorities said late this morning that they had completed screening more than 17,000 migrants stranded on Lesbos and that most have boarded ferries for the mainland.
A football stadium has been enlisted as a screening centre, and police sent more staff and fingerprinting equipment to accelerate the process.
Police said the screening centre will continue to handle some 3,000-4,000 people who arrive every day.
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